Fishing Line and Face Rubs
by Shelly LeBlanc
Summary: It's never nice to hide an injury from your brother. Who doctors the doctor when the doctor doesn't want to be doctored? One-shot Raph/Don. Very mild Tcest. 2014.


The dust had finally settled and it was time to repair and rebuild. Sensei was resting, allowing the mutagen to do its job and heal him completely. Donnie says it should work quickly, that the resting was just a precaution.

It had been too close.

Now it was time for the rest of us to fix ourselves up and get to cleaning up the mess the Shredder and his Foot goons caused our lair. There was some talk about moving, but our enemy is down, for now, so we are given the luxury of getting a plan out there before we had to do anything. Which was a good thing, because it didn't look like any of us were ready to move any time soon.

Of course, when I said that we needed to fix ourselves up, I meant more along the lines of sitting down and waiting our turn while Donnie worked his medicinal magic. He was our resident doctor, along with technician and, well, almost everything else. My shell ached slightly as I watched Donnie tend to Mikey and Leo's arms where the needles the lab people had not-so-gently inserted, along with the electrical burns from the Tasers. Leo's burns were particularly bad, but he had done his whole 'I'm Okay' spiel and tried to get out of the mothering Don was handing out, but before I could force the stupid guy down, our brainy brother was able to sweet talk and bribe Leo with the much wanted responsibility of being Sensei's nurse maid. That had shut our fearless leader up and quietly submit to the doctoring. Finally as the last injury was cleaned on his body, Leo shot off to where Master Splinter was, hoping to fluff a pillow or something, and Don's attention turned to me.

But I didn't get tased into submission and had half my blood pumped out of me, and Don didn't have a magical bribing material to get me to yield to his ministrations that easily.

"Nu, uh," I said as I saw Don reach for the specialty made epoxy he created for our shells. He paused mid-reach and blinked owlishly at me. "You first."

Don scoffed slightly and reached for epoxy again. "Don't be ridiculous," he said, grabbing the item with his non-dominate hand. "I'm fine. I'll fix me up as soon as I get your cracks sealed up. I don't want any more debris to enter you than it already has. Did you shower? We need to-"

A hiss escaped his lips and he dropped the jar. He had tried to get it open, which should have been an easy feat. Even as tight as he usually makes things, his years of bo wielding and working on machinery made his hands strong as iron. But as soon as he tried to pry the jar open with his left hand, I saw the muscles on his side spasm and he used his now free right arm to clutch his left side, simultaneously tried to move away from me.

But I had lightning quick reflexes and grabbed hold of him before he could get too far away and forced his arms away from his body to see what damage he was so intent on hiding.

Oh, that actually looks bad. A blood drenched hand towel was placed right under his armpit, probably being held together by blood and the pressure of Don's arm against his side. Don bit off a whimper as I slowly peeled the towel away to reveal a long diagonal cut, deep and still seeping blood. I stare at it a moment, ignoring Don's silent pleading. The bastard wasn't going to hide a serious injury like this one and think he could win me over with his overly big eyes.

I finally tear my eyes away from the ugly mess on my brother's side to give him a death glare, which caused him to gulp. Then I looked at the medical supplies that surrounded us and knew that we didn't nearly have enough to fix this, so I called for reinforcements.

"Leo, I need you!" I called out, not getting up in case Don tries to bolt. For being such a great doctor, he was a terrible patient.

Leo gave a muffled reply and Don finally got his wits together to roll his eyes at me.

"Stop it, Raph. I can get this taken care of in no-" he said, starting to stand up despite my hold on him. And thank God I was still holding him, because he hadn't even raised himself up a foot before he swayed and threatened pitch forward. I caught him easily, letting go of his right arm to wrap my own around his shell and sitting him back down. "Oh, wow, I guess the adrenaline finally wore off."

"LEO!" I scream over my shoulder, "I need more sutures, _now!_" I turn back to Don, who was looking pale and faint. "It's okay," I said to him, more calmly, "I gotcha. I gotcha."

Don, whose head had been resting on his chest for a moment, lift it back up and looked at me, his golden eyes large behind his glasses. "Of course you got me," he said simply. "You haven't dropped me since we were nine."

I felt myself grin despite the situation, "You're never gonna let that one go, are ya?" His head dropped back down onto his chest, but I could see the answering grin.

"It was your idea to try and get the baseball. I told you I would have made one for you."

Before I could answer, I saw Leo come into view, his eyes on the supplies in his hands and not us.

"I thought you said you didn't need any stitches," Leo said reproachfully, checking the fishing line that we are forced to use as sutures in lieu of the medical grade stuff.

"It's not for me, ding dong," I said, turning my head slightly at him and I saw his head shoot up and finally take in the wound on Donnie's side. He let out a very rare curse and rushed to my side.

"What the hell happened?" Leo demanded as he opened the box of finishing line and started a needle.

Don tried to raise his head again, but it just flopped back down on his plastron.

"I, uh," he started, licking his lips, "It was after I defused the bomb, I think. One of Shredder's blades got me as it was going back to him. I didn't realize it until we were on our way home."

"Raph, here." Suddenly, the sewing needle and fishing line was thrust into my face. Leo moved behind Don's left side and moved my arm away and replaced it with his own. "You have the better sewing skills here, you need to do it."

I almost balked, but I saw Don trying to watch me from under his glasses, which were starting to slip off of his face with the way he was being manhandled by his two brothers. Don had sewed each and every one of us up, guess it was time to return the favor. I grab the items up quickly, relinquishing my hold on Donnie to Leo and moved to his left side.

Leo fixed his hold, allowing Don's left arm to come up and wrap around the back of his neck. With Leo's left arm holding Don's left arm in place, he wrapped his right arm across his chest, securing him and making sure he didn't move.

I then proceeded to clean the wound, something Don demonstrated on my sorry ass multiple times. A tight scream escaped him as I poured the rubbing alcohol onto his wound, which brought Mikey out of the kitchen, an Orange Crush in his hand.

"Dude, what the-?" he started before taking in the sight in front of him. "Whoa!" The Crush was quickly placed on the nearest level surface and he came to stand over my shoulder. "What the hell, dude?"

"Save it, Mikey," Leo grunted, trying to hold now the now squirming Donatello, whose pain caused his adrenalin to rise again and gave him the energy to try to fight me off. "Could you rub his face a little? It might calm him down."

There were few reptilian instincts that the mutagen had left behind, but having our faces rubbed seemed to be the best way to calm one of us down when we're distressed and Mikey promptly removed Don's glasses and started to rub his cheeks a little.

Don squawked at having his sight taken away, but he calmed down as soon as Mikey's hands started to work their magic. His body relaxed instantly and it allowed me to finish with the cleaning and move onto the repairing.

I pause a moment, taking in the sight before me. Don, relaxed back into Leo, his face turned towards Mikey, and I have to bite back a growl. It was nothing. It should be nothing. It wasn't like I said anything to him, nor has he said anything to me, but I disliked seeing him in arms of someone else, even if is the arms of my brothers. But the sight of his wound made me check myself and I proceed on as planned.

The first few stiches were a little off, but as I progressed, I got better and better. It helped that Don had started talking, probably picking up my reluctant vibe.

"I felt it initially," he continued his story, the face rubs were loosening his tongue. "Just like a scratch, really. But then the spire was falling, then we were falling, and by the time I realized it was there, I completely forgot that our bodies weren't going to heal properly after Sacks took out some of our blood and I thought I could just go like normal and it would stop bleeding on its own. I just grabbed the nearest towel in the lair and went straight to Sensei."

Leo made a noise from his throat. "How the heck could you forget that?"

"Adrenaline overload," Don stated, "Can cause racing, heart, shortness of breath, sweaty palms, dry mouth-"

"I knew I should have kept that Crush with me," Mikey piped it, but Don continued as if he hadn't heard him.

"-tense muscles, short term memory loss, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Be glad we were able to be fully functioning turtles after the amount April gave us."

"I'm just glad there was enough blood left in ya to have that stuff circulate, or whatever it's supposed to do," I said softly, as I continued my work. "This is going to leave a gnarly scar, bro."

"Really?" Don sounded excited about the prospect. He was the least scared of the four of us, but it was understandable. He was the least likely of us to rush headlong to do something stupid, plus his weapon was long range. It's harder to get a sword or sais close enough to his pretty face to cut it up. I blush, realizing how I was describing him and ducked down, but nobody was even looking at me. Their attention was all on Donnie. He couldn't look down on the wound with the way Leo and Mikey had him placed, but he tried anyway. "Actually, I think I might walk away without one. Since my body's healing abilities are slow at the moment, your stitching could be just quick enough to make the scaring minimum."

"Huh," I commented, trying not to look up at his face. "How does that work, exactly? You're usually very quick to fix us up when we get hurt, but we got a good couple of 'em."

I felt the heat of his gaze, though I know he can't see me correctly. "Mutagen. By the time the injury occurred, our bodies are already trying to heal itself and I'm usually too late to get the skin sewn together before it's partially done. And I'm not about to reinjure you guys just to avoid a scar."

His right hand, which had latched onto Leo's right forearm, came away from his chest and gently touched the scar on my mouth. How he could see it, I didn't know. Perhaps it was memory. I paused in my sewing as he traced the scar with his finger tip. "Sometimes, though," Don stated quietly, "I wish I had been quicker."

Slowly and gently, I move my face slightly and press my beak against his fingers. It wasn't really a kiss, maybe it could have been called a peck, but I felt Don's breath hitch regardless. Then he started to trace the smile that started to form on my face and I went back to my work.

"It gives me character," I joke and finished up the last stitch. I had lost count after ten, not wanting to concentrate on the ugliness of it. I place a large piece of gauze over it and tape it to his skin. "Done. Leo?"

"To bed," our eldest brother said immediately and lifted him up. Don squawked again at having to be man handled. It was slightly awkward, with Leo being shorter than him, but he obviously had gotten most if not all of his strength back and quickly. I followed quickly, along with Mikey, who was forced to let go of Don's face when Leo hauled him up.

Don continued his token protests as he was placed on his right side on Mikey's bed, which was the only bed not destroyed or covered in debris during the attack, but they could see that he was losing energy fast and that he was still in a considerable amount of pain. I go to the sink in the corner and quickly washed my hands. At least, it was meant to be quick, but I couldn't help but stare as I watched my brother's blood get rinsed off of my hands and slide down the drain. The mere image shook me to the core.

This was Donnie's blood, my brother's blood. It should never have seen the light of day, but today, it was spilt twice, once when an egotistical maniac wanted to use his blood for some type of cure, and the other when an equally mad man tried to kill him while Don was trying to defuse his bomb. My gentle brother, who I had cared for and watched over, to make sure that he was never, ever harmed. And I had his blood on my hands.

I stood there a moment, barely paying attention to the verbal argument they were having behind me, but when another hiss escaped Don's lips, I shook myself to awareness and finished cleaning up and quickly moved to his side.

I saw that Mikey had brought Don's glasses and the jar with him, but I didn't pay much attention until he grabbed my shoulder and forced me to kneel next to Donnie.

"You commence face rub-age, I'm gonna do your shell."

It was my turn to do some protesting, because I didn't want my prankster younger brother anywhere near my shell. But then I saw Don relax at Mikey's proclaim, and I realized that that had been what Leo and Donnie had been arguing about and Don was content as long as I was getting taken care of.

I'm not going to lie, it made my heart beat a little bit harder but I just did as they told me and knelt beside the purple-masked turtle. He grinned sheepishly at me.

"Are you really going to rub my face," he asked. His smile was making me dizzy and I could tell he was pleased with the thought.

"You bet I am," I growled, "and as soon as you're better, I'm gonna make Sensei send you to the Ha'shi for not telling us about your stupid cut."

Don groaned, thought whether it was from the thought of having to go to the Ha'shi or the fact that I had already started rubbing his face, I wasn't so sure.

Leo watched us for a moment, with me rubbing a compliant Donnie, and Mikey patching up my shell with surprisingly ease, before nodding and turning away with a knowing smirk. "I'll let Sensei know what's going on and check on him."

He didn't ask if we had everything under control. The nosy bastard already knew that we did. But I didn't let my thoughts stay with the disappearing brother, nor was I paying any attention to the one behind me. Instead, I concentrated on the one whose face was in my hands, and if I wasn't mistaken, had just let his lips pressed against the heel of my left one.

Yeah, I got everything under control.

-o-

A quick and dirty one-shot. Unbeta'd.


End file.
